AI profiling of traffickers at airports, screening of students in varsities
New Delhi | An AI-based passenger profiling system will be deployed across airports to identify high-risk passengers, drug couriers and emerging narcotics trafficking trends as part of the government's drug-free India declaration, which is to , Jul 7 (PTI) be achieved over the next three years.
A drug screening mechanism will also be introduced in higher education institutions in a phased manner.
These strategies are part of the first-of-its-kind and recently released national roadmap against drug trafficking - the 'Vision Document on Narcotics Control 2026-2029' - by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
PTI has accessed the 96-page document, which states it was prepared to provide a "clear strategic direction" to all the anti-narcotics stakeholders covering "all key dimensions" of the national fight against narcotics and for a 'Nasha Mukt Bharat'.
It will translate the roadmap into an "actionable and outcome-oriented framework" for all stakeholders with the federal Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) as the nodal agency.
A total of 41 bodies -- 39 ministries and departments of the Union government, various states and Union territories and their Anti-Narcotics Task Forces (ANTFs) -- have been given timelines to accomplish various tasks so that the menace of drugs can be wiped out from the country by 2029.
The action plan also states that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will operationalise a "dedicated" extradition portal by July-end to bring back 100 drug-crime fugitives, who escaped from India, by March 2029.
"To strengthen airport interdiction capabilities, CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs) will introduce AI and Machine Learning-based passenger profiling and trend analysis systems by March, 2027.
"This will facilitate the identification of high-risk passengers, drug couriers, and emerging trafficking patterns through analysis of travel behaviour and risk indicators," the document said.
It stated this was important because drug syndicates were "increasingly" exploiting the air route to smuggle high-value but low-volume drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and synthetic drugs.
"Screening for drugs in higher education institutes will be introduced in a phased manner as part of a student wellness programme for early detection and counseling of students indulging in drug abuse.
"This initiative will cover IITs, IIMs, NITs, IISERs, SPAs, CFTI, Central and Deemed Universities in the next 3 years covering more than 10 lakh students across 170 centrally-funded higher educational institutions," it said, adding that the screening SOP will be developed by the National Drug Dependency Treatment Centre of AIIMS (Delhi).
The document added that all border guarding forces of the country -- BSF, ITBP, SSB and Assam Rifles -- apart from the CISF, which was recently designated as the national seaport security agency, will establish independent 'narcotic cells' within their establishments.
The Land Ports Authority (LPA) will install 26 full-body truck scanners at 29 high-risk and high-volume Land Customs Stations (LCSs) and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) in a phased manner over the next three years to strengthen non-intrusive detection of vehicle and cargo for concealed drugs, it said.
To check the increasing menace of "diversion" of pharmaceutical drugs for trafficking, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has been asked to enable "digital tracking" of NRx drugs (NDPS regulated medicines) across the supply chain (through QR codes) by September.
The Organisation has also been asked to develop a centralised end-to-end tracking platform within the next three years for real-time monitoring of the production and distribution of such pharma drugs.
"CCTV surveillance and mobile app-based dispensing systems will be made mandatory in medical shops to improve traceability and accountability (of these drugs)," it said.
The organisation has also been asked to amend the existing Rules to "regulate" e-pharmacies by December.
The Department of Revenue (under the Union finance ministry) has been entrusted to finalise the legislative process and operationalise the amended framework of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act by April 2027 and also "revise" the 2017 reward policy for informers and whistleblowers by September this year.
The Postal Department will implement a regulatory framework by March, 2027 to check the misuse of the couriers and parcels for drug trafficking.
Some other salient points of the ambitious vision document are:
Identifying 100 trans-national and inter-state drug cartels by December 2027 and dismantling them by March 2029; NCB to develop red-flag indicators with the Financial Intelligence Unit for detecting drug transactions and generating suspicious transaction reports (STRs) by July end; initiate the process of deportation rather than prosecution of foreign nationals in appropriate drug cases beginning December 2026 and conclusion of cases against kingpins and cartel members by March 2028.